1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to core apparatus for use in a casting mold, and to methods of utilizing same. More particularly, the invention pertains to reusable core apparatus for defining internal casting surfaces in a casting mold, and to methods of utilizing such reusable core apparatus.
2. Description Of Relative Art
There are many known methods and apparatus for casting articles made of various materials, including methods and apparatus in the aluminum die casting, plastic injection molding, and permanent molding industries. Further, there are known methods and apparatus for casting articles of various materials in which the cast articles have internal surfaces formed as the article is being cast. In such known methods and apparatus, the internal surfaces of the cast article will typically be defined by non-reusable core inserts which are adapted to be disposed and arranged within a casting cavity of a casting mold. Often the cast article will have a plurality of internal surfaces extending in a predetermined relationship to each other or a complex internal surface, such as a cast article with an internal surface having a constant radius with a long side and a short side. In such instances it is, again, typically necessary to use one or more non-reusable inserts which would be placed in the casting mold to define the internal casting surfaces, which inserts would be discarded after one use.
Such known methods and apparatus are disadvantageous because the core inserts used in such conventional methods and apparatus are used only once during a single casting process, resulting in increased cost for the cast articles.
Additionally, problems often arise with the disposition and arrangement of the core non-reusable inserts in a mold cavity such that the mold inserts are not accurately maintained in position during a casting process so that cast parts are correspondingly formed with imperfections.
The present invention has been developed to overcome such disadvantages of the conventional methods and apparatus, and to generally fulfill a great need in the art by providing a method and apparatus for casting articles with internal surfaces, wherein the complete casting apparatus, including core inserts, is reusable, and hence can be economically used for casting numerous parts.